


Lost Offices

by Turboshep



Series: An Adventure In The Commonwealth [1]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Bad Choice of Words, Gen, Old Friend Death, previous life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 09:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16829836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turboshep/pseuds/Turboshep
Summary: Knight Marcello and Paladin Danse patrol Cambridge about once a month. Nothing REALLY happens there besides the walls of ghouls that come up from the Super Duper Mart Basement and College Park Subway station, but today, for some staggeringly suppressed reason, he recognizes an old building, and his memory gets a bit more of a jog than it wanted. Some ghosts of the past haunt some more than others.





	Lost Offices

Going through the areas they had cleared mere weeks ago, Marcello looked around at the partially crumbling buildings compared to the ones they had yet to clear. Something about them seemed familiar of course, but then there was something special about one of the buildings. There was nothing overly intricate about it, save for the entrance. Something ghostly that pulled Marcello to it, but not anything evil. 

“Paladin…” the Knight said, almost under his breath. 

“Yes, Knight? What is it?” Paladin Danse turned around to meet a dazed Knight Marcello.

“Here.” he replied, not looking at the Paladin; just staring at the building with almost unbridled fascination. The windows of the metal doors had been blown out, a mystery that was lost to the sands of time, but the doors were still very solid. Something about them seemed so familiar, yet, still so foreign to him.

“Is there something wrong Knight?” Paladin Danse asked as he snuck with the Knight, mere inches away in his power armor.

“I know this place…” He whispered back, not knowing where they were going, but feeling like he knew this place like the back of his hand. As they got to the first fork in the hallway, he looked around at the decrepit walls and saw that the left hallway had caved in, but the right was only partially.

“No…” Paladin Danse whispered, grabbing Marcello’s as the Knight made a move to go to the right.

“Yes…” Marcello looked back with furrowed brows.

“Fine…” Paladin Danse relented and let go. He knew it was a bad idea to go down hallways that you couldn’t see all the way through, but sometimes the stubbornness of the Knight was enough to at least let Danse hear him out…. Regardless of if there’s ghouls right around the corner or not. As they neared the rubble, Marcello heard the quiet, high-pitched hum of Danse’s laser rifle behind him, barely taking a second to assess before he near silently clambored through. Danse on the other hand was stuck on the other side in this power armor. 

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” Marcello said as he looked back at his commanding officer and exploration partner with his own version version of the Paladin’s Righteous Authority. Marcello used it on almost every mission, regardless of whomever he was with. When the paladin gave it to him, it was at first what seemed to be the most thoughtful gift anyone had ever given to him, but what made him fall in love with it was all the modifications he could do to it. Danse was impressed with it, and let him go as he pleased, with some modifications more effective than others. In the end, Marcello made two versions of it, one a near exact copy of the original. The only difference: He made the copy a sniper rifle, but the original became a close combat assault rifle. 

Paladin Danse nodded and backed off, starting to quietly make his way around the outside of the building.  _ Standard _ Protocol called for scouting the perimeter before entering a building, but Marcello, in a spellbound daze, casually forgot that part. Danse quietly cursed in worry over the Knight he had grown attached to, huffing after mere seconds of the Knight’s initial movement towards the building. “Fine…”

Marcello looked around suspiciously at how quiet it was in the office building. The pale yellow paint that he remembered had faded and stained, looking more sickly brown-yellow than sunbleached sunflower that he remembered. He was honestly surprised the building survived nuclear war considering how thrown together he thought it was when he first set foot in it 215 years ago. The few skeletons that were around the foyer belonged to people that hadn’t been there in centuries, yet it felt like only a couple days ago that he saw them. Aaron and Melinda. The two gatekeepers to the rest of the building. He knew they hadn’t suffered being so close to the outside world. That was the only thing he was thankful for. 

On the outside, the Paladin had dawned his power armor again in an effort to defend the building his partner explored, though he was still annoyed he did it without any kind of permission or anything, he quickly got over it. Over time he hadn’t understood why he had become so adamant about his Knight’s safety, aside from the normal ‘defend your brothers and sisters’ like he had always done. He knew he was part of the family that the Brotherhood of Steel was, but something still pulled him closer, though he couldn’t place his finger on it. He didn’t have much time to dwell on it however, because as he walked down the side of the building, a bullet ricocheted off his power armor’s right shoulder. The Paladin had gotten used to the quickdraw that his Knight had been able to help him with, though the weight reduction his laser rifle went through also was surprising. Almost without thinking, the war hardened Paladin burned through a scavenger who saw him as a death sentence. He almost started aiming too high just from how light his weapon was now. That old warehouse they explored three weeks ago had surprisingly held the key to making ballistic resin armor. They had the ballistic weave, though Marcello still kept it quiet how he was able to get it, and Paladin Danse was NOT buying that he was “experimenting” with it. Still, the Knight maintained that he was remembering what was being done in the years before the war. It was just far too convenient that it took him so long to remember. Or was that the Paladin’s mind getting the better of him. He hated when he would get jealous about things like that.

“One of these days…” he muttered to himself as he heard rustling around a corner. The voices were familiar to him, but he wondered where he heard them before. 

“You know you’re not going to get through that lock like that miss Wright.” 

“Shush, I’ll get it somehow.” At that, Paladin Danse jumped out of the corner he was hiding behind only to be met with a rotary saw blade mere inches from his stabilizing hand. 

“Gah!!! Mister Paladin!! What are you doing here?” Codsworth yelped as he pulled his saw blade away.

“Jeez Danse!! Trying to scare someone into killing you?” Piper said as she lowered her custom .45 that Marcello made for her.

“I should be asking you two the same thing!! Sneaking around like this without much backup!!” Danse scolded them.

“Speaking of, where’s Blue?” Piper noticed as she deftly got up from the safe she was trying to crack.

“In there. He wanted me to go ahead and secure the perimeter while he went inside. Something about how he knows this place…” 

“AND YOU LET HIM?!” Piper said, rearing up to the point that Danse almost flintched.

“I’d like to see you try.” He said with a deep scowl, “I demanded he not, but that’s what I get for having someone so insubordinate under my control.” 

“There’s a thing with Blue. It’s called insubordination. He’s good at that after everything. So what about you? Why did you leave your power armor and still leave him alone?” Piper inquired as the Mr. Handy went ahead to make sure the rest of the property was secure from foes both high and low.

“I’m still too big to get through the gap that he got through.” Danse told her flatly, “You or that cage fighter can do it, but that’s about it.”

“Dang. I know he’s flexible but that’s a bit much.” She pondered, “Tell you what. Since I’m here, I’ll go ahead and get after Blue. You stay here and meet up with Codsworth. Sound like a plan?”   
  
“As much as I despise taking orders from a civilian, I think that’s best as well. Here. All the ammo I found for that firearm he made for you.” Danse begrudgingly conceded. 

“Thanks. And Danse… We’re here for you.” Piper said as she ran back around to the front of the building. 

“Wait. Let me go with you. That way I know nothing happens to you.” Danse reached out to grab her.

“Wh-...... Good idea. I heard someone kill some raiders. One of them fell around the corner from on top of a building.” Piper said as she looked over at a dead body on a pile of rubble.

“That was me…” Danse almost glared at her.

“Oh… lead the way, Paladin.” Piper stuttered in surprise.

=======

Back in the office building, things were going a bit more dramatic. Marcello had come across various rooms that housed little more than one or two ghouls each. With such small rooms, there was little he could do for stealth, so he had to go into either guns blazing, but still hiding, or just guns blazing. 

“Fuck!! Why did I think this was a good idea?!” Marcello scolded himself. 

One, two, three, four, change firearm, one, two, three, four, down, dodge one coming from behind, cut head off, one, two, three, four, reload. All he could think was ‘thank god there’s only three at a time…’

“Hey Blue!!” Marcello heard out of nowhere as a grenade soared into a room and exploded.

“Piper!? What are you doing here?” Marcello said, his voice cracking slightly, “Where’s Danse?”

“Don’t worry about that now, let’s clear this place out and get the heck outta here!!” Piper said as she checked behind her.

“Got it, Got it. Still heading this way. We’re almost out actually.” Marcello assured her.    
  
“Hold on, Blue! How the heck do you expect to do this by yourself?!” Piper challenged. 

“Umm…. I didn’t think that far?!” Marcello admitted to his new partner in battle. 

“You idiot!!” Piper scolded him as she reloaded her pistol. 

“Hey!! At least I’m still alive!!” Marcello said as he blew the head off a feral ghoul from ten feet away.

“Thank God for small miracles!!” Piper replied, reloading her pistol, “What the hell are you doing in here anyways!?” 

Marcello had resorted to using his double barrell shotgun that he only used in emergencies when he looked at her, only to be met with the normally intensely-jovial reporter’s newly found hellfire glare that withered Marcello like an unruly child finally being chided for their behavior.

“I-I used to work here…” Marcello said after clearing out the last few ferals and taking pot shots at the ones still on the ground. 

“Wait…. You what?!” Piper came up, suddenly excited about this new-to-her discovery, “What did they do here? Was there some sort of secret mission or something going on down here? Were you part of some sort of government coverup? Come on Blue, spill the deets!” 

“N-no… Nothing like that. We were a small company. We were…… over here I think. God all these people... They never knew…” Marcello began thinking out loud; remembering a life forgotten to time, a society killed by greed. 

“Stay with me Blue. Your friends. Where were they?” Piper slowly walked up to him, trying to ground him in the present. All Marcello could do was hug them and take a slow deep breath.

“I need you to open that door… I can’t do it…” Marcello beckoned to one door at the end of a hall where it split off to two other hallways. His breathing wasn’t ragged, but it wasn’t controlled either, which scared Piper endlessly. He was pretty controlled with everything he had to contend with up until now. The way people had rebuilt had given him hope for some kind of future at least, and he had always liked that about his fellow man and woman, how they could pick up the pieces and move on. But now? Now was different. One of the last people he saw before the bombs dropped would have seen the world around them fall right from under their feet. The sudden wave of everything hit him as he leaned into Piper and started crying. Not loud, not soft, not disingenuous, but not overwrought. Just pure antagonizing anxiety letting itself out. 

“I Got it Blue. Don’t look.” Piper reassured him as he didn’t look. She slowly turned the stained, tired handle as it flexed from its mooring in protest. Unsurprisingly the door was almost rusted shut with how long it had been since it was opened. 

“Blue…” Piper looked back at her uneasy companion, “it’s stuck.” 

Marcello sighed and, in a roundabout way, thanked god for not allowing him to open that door just yet. He almost hoped he would never have to find that key, but he still cursed himself for his hardwired need to be honorable with those he met. 

“This way…” Marcello almost breathed. He was cautious going down the hallway to the right, looking down a blown out office in one corner and then listlessly going down the end of the hallway. He wasn’t moving with his eyes; only a memory that he was reliving. The end of the hall was a dark, shattered place; the tree that was just outside falling onto the building sometime between the last age and this. Orange light streamed in through the cracks of the ceiling brick wall with leaves garnishing the pile of rubble in front of him. Piper ended up holding his shoulder with a dirty hand as he trembled under her touch. For a moment, she thought he wasn’t able to see the way forward through his own mind.

“Marc… You’re scaring me... “ Piper whispered tenderly.

“Help…” He choked as his hand held the door knob weakly. Piper could feel him trembling; hear his uneasy breathing in her ear as she looked through the pathetically dirty window of the office. Marcello thanked God for her not turning around to see him in such a state. The door protested at first with a cracking shriek and a smooth slice through the din. Tables moved into a giant “W” took up most of the space, but the far left corner of the room had collapsed into the basement. A few of the metal racks still stood, but the closer they got to the corner, the closer they could see the twisted carnage of steel, aluminum, cabling, and a body; most likely Mr. Tim, the building’s caretaker. Marcello turned around to Piper and hugged her strongly, the streams of light coming in from the cracks that followed them from the hallway, and the crushed aluminum safety windows that saved them from the falling bricks that made the wall, but not from the radiation that penetrated everything. Piper struggled to breathe, but all the taller man could muster as an apology was a whimper as he saw the two doors busted in from the blast. He slowly let her go and treaded lightly to see the rest of the office, walking around the tables and seeing a ghoul running up to the second half of the office no doubt.

“Anja...” Marcello raggedly breathed out. He kept walking and saw his old desk. The one he set up to give him a workspace to log all his work he did so it looked like he actually did something. 

“Amber…” Marcello paused and put his hand on the dead ghoul’s shoulder. It was cold from time it had spent in this purgatory, but it still felt like his friend from a bygone era. 

“Tot…” He murmured to the ghoul who looked like they fell out of their chair, knocked unconscious by the blast and being left for dead. He walked back around to the door they had come in, but he looked a shade better than when he was outside. Piper thought about asking him about them, but decided against it as he walked past her; a beaten expression on his face.

“..... Piper…” he whispered, “Stay on guard.” he warned.

“What’s up?” Piper asked quietly, just as a large ghoul came around a wall of filing cabinets and roared at them.

“That!!” Marcello yelled as he readied his short double barrel shotgun he had readied with slugs. The bloated glowing one had somehow made it this long in this hell hole, but that didn’t mean it had lost any of its agility. Slug after slug went into its chest and one shoulder, but finally Marcello was lucky enough to get one head shot before a feral ghoul reaver came around the second bay of cubicles to the right of where they had come in. 

“Marc!! Get out of there!!” Piper shrieked as she tried almost futily to pick off the reaver that had flanked him. Three of her 7 shots hit the core of it, but at the same time,she glanced one off Marcello’s shoulder as the reaver ran haphazardly up to them. After a few swipes at Marcello the reaver lunged for Piper with one arm in the air before two headshots finally put him down at the step separating both halves of the office. 

Before the reaver danced with Piper, it beat Marcello into a wall of two sided filing cabinets while Marcello shot 4 more rounds into the bloated glowing one - his rifle’s barrel stuck under the ribs of the glowing one. 

“Marc-!!” was all Piper was able to get out as Marcello tried desperately to slide back over the filing cabinet when he got a break; he slid back under the ghoul just as his foot made contact with its chest and kicked him across the space and into a large wooden table, but not for much reprieve. Within a few precious seconds, the ghoul was back on him, but Marcello’s rifle was free to move, with just enough time to jam the barrell into the bottom of the ghoul’s mouth and pull the trigger. The ghoul’s head was sprayed all over the half fallen in ceiling tiles, giving them a sickening green glow as the source. 

“Willhelm…” Marcello looked on in disbelief at the large ghoul laying in front of him, “Fred….” He looked on at the other much smaller, but still rotund ghoul and took a deep breath.

“Marcello….” Piper whispered, not knowing whether to go comfort her friend or give him space; she opted for the former when he started talking to them.

“I can’t believe you guys were here still. Why weren’t you all at home?” He asked the body of Willhelm, “I know you wanted this company to survive, but please… That day was a day meant for your family… To put the week behind you…” 

“Marcello…. They can’t hear you anymore.” Piper tried to comfort him, but it wasn’t going to work.

“NO! THEY CAN. THEY’RE STILL HERE! WATCHING US GRIEVE!” he yelled as loud as he could. To hell with being covered in glowing blood mixing with tears, “THE BODIES AREN’T EVEN COLD YET! I KNOW THEY’RE STILL HERE!”

Piper stumbled back and unlocked the front door of the office as she ran from the building. She knew what lay ahead of her, but she saw a door down a long hallway to her right and decided to run for it. If nothing, the ghouls would get her. She could hear a beating of a lifetime coming from the other side of the door, but she couldn’t tell what was going on; she unchained the door anyways.

======

Paladin Danse was beside himself in anger, worry, and contempt after hearing the slaughtering that was going on inside the building, he contemplated breaking down a wall until he ran around the building and saw the ramp to the roof. Who thought this was a good idea anyways? A car park on the roof? This building must have shook the bombs off like a heavy breeze. The Paladin took it as his ticket in seeing as how all the windows were blocked FROM THE INSIDE. He cursed this design decision as the only ones that weren’t were the ones to the main foyer, which was completely cut of from the rest of the complex like he saw inside. Aside from a few cracks in the parking lot and the tree he had seen crushing that side entrance, there wasn’t a lot he could do from the top.

“Damn him…” Paladin Danse muttered with Codsworth over his shoulder, “Codsworth, do you know ANYTHING about this building?”

“Wh-why yes sir. It was an office building where contractors could rent office space and conduct business. There were only a handful of businesses after the military pulled out and made their field offices in the same building as the DIA hideout, however that was only realized when Master Marcello and I explored them.”

“Are. There. Any. Other. Entrances.” Danse spoke a bit too controlled for himself.

“Oh. Yes sir. Just one more and that’s down here.” Codsworth hurried down the ramp and darted to the left just outside the Paladin’s vision. By now he was certain Piper and Marcello could hear his thunderous footsteps in there. Just as he turned the corner, Codsworth let out a great yelp as chains rattled on the other side of a door in a recessed corner of the building next to a large bay door that was still closed off. Paladin Danse put away Righteous Authority and got his gatling laser ready. 

“Ahh!!”, Piper jumped as she kicked the door open, not realizing they had allies just outside.

“WHERE IS HE?!” Paladin Danse asked a bit too loudly to the journalist.

“God damnit Danse!! He’s right down that hall, just take it easy.” Piper reassured him. He didn’t even let half the sentence penetrate his mind as he ran down the hallway, heaving his gatling laser in his arms. 

“Knight Marcello!! Where are you!? Answer me damn you!!” He yelled down the hallway, “Come on Marc!! Tell me wh-” he was cut off by a figure at the end of the hallway, holding a glowing bloated one in his hands, “Knight!! Put that thing do-”

“Don’t…” Marcello spoke quietly, firmly, yet still barely under control. Only when the Paladin got closer did he realize there were tears in his Knight’s eyes. “These people…. They weren’t supposed to be here... It was their weekend off. I don’t want them to regret it…” Marcello spoke through controlled sobs and heavy breathing.

“Knight…. There’s nothing we can do for them anymore… They’re not human l-” Paladin Danse spoke cautiously, but was still cut off by a furious Knight with a sharp aim, but deliberately missed the Knight and his friends.

“DAMN WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THEM. THESE PEOPLE DIDN’T DESERVE TO MEET THE HELL THAT WAS BROUGHT TO THEM! DAMN WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THEM LIKE THIS! THESE WERE MY FRIENDS. MY SECOND FAMILY! I WILL NOT HAVE YOU DISRESPECT THEM WHERE THEY MET DEATH!” Marcello berated his commanding officer. Who was he and his little outfit to sit there and demean everything from his time, even the people themselves who did not ask for any of this? How dare he speak of the old world like every imaginable thing was at fault? There were few things that made this world Marcello lived in now. Couldn’t they see it? Would they see it? He couldn’t think about that through the burning anger he had for the one he thought was more than this. Alas, how could he be? He’d only known the world he’s grown up in, not the world before it all came crashing to the ground. A modern day El Dorado with enough people to keep it going after going past the brink.

“I AM YOUR COMMANDING OFFICER KNIGHT! YOU WILL SPEAK TO ME WITH RESPECT! UNDERSTAND?!” Paladin Danse barked. No one, not even the Vault Dweller got away with speaking to him about his family in the here and now. No one.

“And you will get out of my way…Paladin.” Marcello said coldly, not bothering to look at a single one of them except Codsworth. He remembered at least. 

======

The walk back to Sanctuary was a quiet one. Preston and Deacon met him at the gate. It was such a shock to the poor spy he dropped his torch. 

“H-hey Marco. Is there a reason you’re carrying that dead ghoul bridal style?” Deacon tried to break the ice, but was met with one of the darkest glares to date.

“Is there a reason you’re still breathing besides my good graces and  _ tremendous _ self control?” Marcello asked in warning.

“Say no more man…” Deacon conceded, making himself scarce after that.

“General… who was this?” Preston asked shyly, not knowing what was a good question and what was a bad one.

“His name… was Wilhelm Philips.” Marcello heaved, having carried the now less than 230 pound ghoul a good 15 miles, “Help me put him on the ground!” Marcello yelped as his body started giving out. With the help of both men, he was able to get his old boss on the ground in a more dignified way than he imagined. By now, a cool night was well underway as Marcello looked up at the night sky.

“Where is everyone? Piper and them?” Marcello asked, “I met up with them northeast of the police station. That’s where I met my old friend here…” He trailed off as he looked down at the now headless ghoul he regretted doing that to, but knew there was no other way.

“They’re on their way to the castle. Some Brotherhood contacts were going to give Piper a history of Fort Strong. She asked around to see if anyone wanted to go and Cate said she’d be her muscle for the boys. A patrol came up and tried to tell her off and well… we now have 3 Brotherhood members in cots at the hotel you made. Curie patched them up and now we’re letting them rest before getting a vertibird here tomorrow.” Preston compiled his usual laundry list of goings on in the settlements, “How about you? Well- besides this.”

Marcello chuckled and took a deep breath, “I met up with some old friends, stomped some old grounds, and now I’m paying my respects. Let’s get some sleep man. It’s gonna be a rough day tomorrow…” he mused as he finished a Gwinnett Stout, “I’ve got to apologize to a strapping Brotherhood member and well… answer for some unsavory things I said to him as well… But this is the biggest. So, we’ll start there. Come on bud.” Marcello said, finally getting up from the rocks overlooking the woods to the north of Sanctuary, “We’re not the only tired ones here.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this!!! This is my first post and the first time I've been actually satisfied with something enough to post it, though it's taken since April to get to this point. I do apologize for text walls at certain points. Rambling and all that. The timeline for this was about 6 months after the Brotherhood of Steel came to the Commonwealth, but Marcello was taking his time getting through all the missions with everyone else he had to help.


End file.
